Jun 18, 12 at 11:53amzakislam

Origin offers huge discounts despite previous Steam sales criticism

Only a week following their criticism of Steam by saying the service's substantial discounts "cheapen" IPs, EA has revealed a sale for Origin, which offers up to a 87 percent discount.

Origin's FloorPrice sale is offering a 75 percent discount for games including Spore, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit,Darksidersand Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Dragon Age: Origins has received a 87.5 percent discount.

The sale prices mentioned represents discounts on each of the title's current pricetag on the platform, instead of their original RRP. Subsequently, the discounts make for an ever larger saving for consumers.

Origin's massive discount prices will come as a surprise to many following the service's boss displeasure at Steam's sales that go up to 75 percent. David DeMartini stated that such large discounts led to the cheapening of IPs, and he even promised that Origin won't follow suit.

"We won't be doing that. Obviously they think it's the right thing to do after a certain amount of time. I just think it cheapens your intellectual property. We're trying to give you a fair price point, and occasionally there will be things that are on sale you could look for a discount, just don't look for 75 per cent off going-out-of-business sales."

Thread Recap (last 10 posts from newest to oldest)

Jun 19, 12 at 11:37pm

harbin

Typical EA being a bunch of hypocritical, anti-industry twats. Even so, as much as I dislike their horrendus customer service, I do continue to play EA Games (when alot of the games are either developed or published by them it's hard not to). From a customer standpoint though I love sales. Although I have an impulse to buy any game on sale that appeals to me, I don't think I'll be buying any of them. The only one that has true appeal to me on that list is perhaps Mirrors Edge, but half of them I already own in Steam. I do like Origin as the program, it is much more lightweight, responsive and easier to use than Steam, although Steam does have more info, better integration, more functions and a proper community. To me, the Steam client is slow and laggy as hell. In fact, the only reason I have Origin is for two games. One being FIFA12, which after playing has gave me the opinion that the series has gone downhill and is now just overhyped, and the other being ME3 and if I had a choice, that would've been installed through Steam.

RA3 isn't bad, but I've never managed to get into it as much as Tiberium Wars. Tiberium Wars to me is much more fun, and akin to what CnC is.

Jun 19, 12 at 10:14am

ShadowJ

Graphics never do, they are nice and are a selling factor but I believe graphics shouldn't be the selling reason. I mean BF3 looks awesome and it plays awesome but I didn't buy the game purely for the graphics alone.

RA3 wasn't a bad game, hell the fact Tim Curry plays the Russian commander makes the game an automatic win but yes when compared to the previous RA's it doesn't really stand up to its predecessors.

Jun 19, 12 at 9:00am

hiigaran

haha, i actually made my comment with red alert in mind. RA2 was great, but then EA decides to mess with everything. RA3 is a perfect example of why graphics does NOT make a game better.

Jun 19, 12 at 7:23am

ShadowJ

Well yeah, buyouts aren't the most pretty of things and to be honest I won't disagree with anyone who has a grudge because their favourite studio was bought then ruined but that's business at the end of the day and sadly it won't stop just because a few people hate it.

Personally out of the C&C series I have only ever enjoyed the Red Alert portion. Generals was pretty good I will admit that one but the fact of the matter is, any company will want to keep the majority of their fanbase happy, if a minority dislikes what they do then they won't care and that's not just EA but any company in existence.

As mentioned before, Valve buying out EA wouldn't make it better...in fact I would say the only ones capable of even running EA effectively are Activision and there you are only trading the devil with the devil himself.

Basically I get why people are pissed but some grudges against EA are just completely stupid and should be let go.

Jun 19, 12 at 4:54am

hiigaran

my problem isnt really with their money grubbing, considering i dont actually buy games, though i do emphasise with the customers. no, my problem with EA is the fact that every single company that made games i enjoyed and have been bought out by EA have been ruined westwood is a perfect example. the C&C games just dont feel the same anymore. of course, thats an old example, but im a fan of a lot of old games.

buyouts are the worst, especially when multiple developers worked on a game that could have had a sequel, and then had things all go to hell when one of the developers refuses to give up the intellectual property, like some bickering kid. i speak mainly about homeworld, but im sure there are others.

Jun 19, 12 at 4:47am

ShadowJ

Indeed not every company will be like that hiigaren but sadly there has to be some company out there like that to balance things out. It's the same with the EA hate bandwagon...I've bashed my head against brick walls trying to get people to see EA from a different angle but now I see that it is hopeless and maybe those haters are meant to be in order to give a divided view on EA. I have not denied that they have strange and weird ways of getting more money from gamers but that's what a corporation that has been in this business for 30 odd years does.

The one thing that amazes me is that people think this is new with EA. Personally I like EA, I like their games and in a twisted way their methods make me smile...granted I think David just spoke at the wrong time or as Trafalgar said, this could be a PR stunt since after all bad publicity is still publicity.

Going back to the 30 odd years that EA have been in this business. It's like trying to change a rabid dog into a calm one. If a dog is 5 years old and has been tormented, abused and taught to be vicious then you have a slim chance of changing that dog and if you do then you risk the chance of the dog snapping at some point. It's the same with EA, they will not change.

Origin still has a long way to go, no one can deny or refute that but Steam has not had any direct opposition for the last 10 or so years, sure there have been digital platforms and sites like Direct 2 Drive but they have simply survived on the sidelines, now you have Origin that wants to shuffle in next door to Steam. Ok it has tripped on the steps leading to the new house, maybe not seen the huge door it needed to open and by god it certainly needs to learn organisation and cleanliness but give it a chance and one day that slob could be the next president.

Fact of the matter is, I use both Origin and Steam, I'm quite happy with both, Origin could be better but I am willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and sure, this David seems like a hypocrite but has anyone noticed that the sales are on EA's own titles and not on 3rd party ones, which is what I think David was getting at.

Also another thing I noticed in the article about David's comments...people seem to think that developers have a huge say in what the sales are on Steam, this is wrong. The comments on that article only mention Indie developers...not major publishers and developers like EA, Beth Soft etc. I'm sure they have some say in the matter but overall it is Steam that makes the decisions and I think that's what David was talking about.

Can't say for sure and I am only giving another perspective on the matter, personally I think David shouldn't have said anything but then again to me this looks like the usual "rival" tactic EA uses of poking their competitor (Battlefield 3 vs CoD:MW3)

Jun 19, 12 at 3:51am

hiigaran

quote Trafalgar

And you said it yourself: if EA didn't have Valve to compete with, they'd never sell games at these prices

my point was that not every company will be the exact same greedy, money grubbing machine, and i was trying to make that distinction between valve and EA. of course, competition is always beneficial to consumers.

Jun 18, 12 at 10:59pm

DemonFowl

Well, EA. You've stolen $3.00 from me on Mass Effect without any rewards, given me horrible and lazy customer service, provide games based all around money and made me lose my purchases of the Sims 2 to an update of Origin. I'm sorry EA, but you guys are pretty shitty.

Jun 18, 12 at 8:52pm

Vapid Soul

I can't stop laughing at this.

Jun 18, 12 at 4:00pm

Trafalgar

I agree with you, but it doesn't change the fact that competition will always be beneficial in some way. It certainly won't damage Valve's customers.

And you said it yourself: if EA didn't have Valve to compete with, they'd never sell games at these prices